Quality Content
Quality content includes having good grammar, punctuation, spelling, and correct information. However, it also needs to be engaging and easy to read. Producing content like this should result in better SERP positioning and Google deciding to share it more often because users find it valuable.
In digital marketing, quality content is content people want or need because it is informative, entertaining, or authoritative. The content answers people’s questions accurately, and the information can be shared, liked, or quoted, giving a website perceived or measurable “authority” on the subject.
Know your audience
While this may seem obvious, many people make mistakes when writing content for their audience. Content should address questions, concerns, or specific intricacies of the industry. Articles shouldn’t just be used as a selling tool for products or services offered by a business. Rather, they should encompass a specific audience’s broader area of interest. For instance, a pool company might have blogs on swimming and common pool issues, not just about their products. It all comes back to taking a value-first approach, trying to help people, providing answers to questions, and even facilitating them learning something new. Trust me, they’ll remember you for it.
Remember that a top priority for search engines is “search intent.” Therefore, work to provide content that matches up against the intent behind a query.
Do not overcomplicate the subject matter or make it too abstract. You don’t want to come off as sounding smart unless you are in a niche field. You want your audience to feel smarter after reading your content. Therefore, convey your thoughts as clearly and concisely as possible. Always try to write conversationally, and keep it as close to your authentic self as possible. People enjoy reading posts that come across naturally. When you start to sound stuffy, impersonal, or overly dry, you risk people tuning out and disengaging.
Quality considerations
Certain quality areas must be considered when it comes to SEO content creation. These include spelling, grammar, readability, consistency, voice and tone, length, organization, formatting, structure, and images.
Spelling
Spelling is obvious; you don’t want to publish content that contains spelling errors. Therefore, you must carefully edit the content you receive, generate, or create. You can employ many tools, from a standard spell checker to more advanced options.
Grammar
Grammar is vital if you want to build credibility. Bad grammar is distracting and opens your writing up to harsh critique from readers. Using correct grammar keeps the reader focused on the content. Grammar is one of those things you don’t notice unless it’s bad.
Readability
Readability is the ability of the average reader of your content to comprehend and enjoy what they are reading. Most news content is intentionally written to an 8th-grade reading level, ensuring the average reader can clearly understand the content.
If your industry is a technical field with a highly-educated audience, you must write to your target audience. But, generally speaking, clear and simplistic writing is always best.
Consistency
A huge part of establishing high-quality content is consistent writing. One of the best ways to be consistent is to put effort into good, well-thought-through outlines. In addition, use phrasing and terminology that is both appropriate and effective.
Creating a writing guide is one way to coordinate the consistency between multiple authors. For example, establish how often you want keywords used, how to write titles, and how numerals and other content elements should be treated. You can also outline what industry terms should be capitalized or not.
Voice and Tone
Voice and tone are something many overlook unless there is an issue. First, determine what tense you are going to use. The first and second person are appropriate, but you shouldn’t switch between the two.
Your tone could be more friendly and casual for fun subjects. On the other hand, if your topic is more serious, your writing should be more formal.
Length
Nowadays, search engines like Google are looking for long-form content. According to research, an article’s average first-page result contains 1,447 words. However, many high-ranking articles reach upwards of 2,000 words.
Organization
Keep the content under the domain used by your company, such as mycompany.com/blog. If your article features on another website, ensure that they provide a rel-canonical link or reference back to the original article on your site. This will help curb views from being drawn off and credited to other domain names and sites.
Formatting and Structure
It is easy to forget how important structure is when creating content. The human brain keys into organized information to make it more impactful. Even the best, most informative content will get lost if it’s presented in a disorganized fashion.
Card sorting is an example of a useful technique in information architecture to help you organize content into categories or topics. It can even be used granularly to figure out what H2s should look like on any page. For example, put topics on cards and visually arrange them on a whiteboard or a table.
Images
The adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” is true when generating unique, original content. Using imagery to help relay a point, provide context, or even draw views can greatly benefit content. Many viewers are drawn in by the right image alone.
Publishing
Know where you’re going so you know how to get ahead
Content marketing is, by its very definition, a strategic marketing concept. Content strategy involves planning, creating, governance, and maintaining content. The goal is to produce high-quality, relevant content published consistently, which can attract a well-defined audience. In addition, your content can build trust
Content publishing revolves around the type of content the business creates and the strategy used to publish it. Most brands distribute various types of content across a mix of platforms, which helps the brand stay competitive and grow its brand awareness.
However, it’s often easiest to start with a blog on the company website when a business is just starting. Blog posts can help attract organic traffic to a website, and they’re simple to share and easy to repurpose into new content formats, such as social media posts.
Frequency
Staying fresh and current is essential, but don’t flood your platforms with content. Instead, ensure that content is relevant and draws in clicks but doesn’t overwhelm your site with unnecessary content.
It is usually more important to deliver high-quality content less often than low-quality content more frequently – however, there are exceptions to every rule. Track the analytics of each article or piece of content you publish. This will tell you how long it takes to gain traction and how often the posts are viewed. Use this information to be better informed for future content production efforts.
Management
Planning is required to keep content creation and publication consistent. Ensure the entire process is streamlined, as this will help maximize output and minimize both the cost and time for production and publication.
Use an Editorial Calendar
An editorial content calendar can help organize each step and phase of content creation and publishing. There are various tools available that can help create a content calendar, such as:
- MS Excel
- Google Sheets
- Google Calendar
- CoSchedule
- Asana
- Trello
- Monday
- Basecamp
Using an editorial calendar allows team members working on content to stay aligned and work together cohesively. In addition, it also provides a useful roadmap to writers and editors alike.
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